Drivers of Groundwater Flow at a Back Barrier Island – Marsh
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DRIVERS OF GROUNDWATER FLOW AT A BACK BARRIER ISLAND – MARSH TRANSECT IN COASTAL GEORGIA by JONATHAN GREGORY LEDOUX (Under the Direction of Christof Meile) ABSTRACT The tidal marsh connects terrestrial landscapes with the coastal ocean. Groundwater within this environment has the ability to move nutrients and influence plant distribution. Land-use change and Sea Level Rise (SLR) threaten to change these groundwater patterns. Monitoring wells recording conductivity, temperature, and water level across a back barrier island-marsh transect at Sapelo Island, GA, identified drivers of groundwater flow. Pressure propagation from tidal variations in creek water level was negligible at the study site. Density-driven flow had little impact on groundwater movement. The saturated nature of the marsh allowed for the well nearest the tidal creek to be used as an inundation meter, and the effect of tidal flooding was identified using three different techniques. Filtering the tidal signal record demonstrated that precipitation, was a main factor for water level changes in the well nearest the upland. INDEX WORDS: Groundwater, Sapelo Island, Slug Test, Density Driven Flow, Precipitation, Cross Correlation, CTD Sonde, Darcy Velocities DRIVERS OF GROUNDWATER FLOW AT A BACK BARRIER ISLAND – MARSH TRANSECT IN COASTAL GEORGIA by JONATHAN GREGORY LEDOUX B.S., Coastal Carolina University, 2011 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science Athens, Georgia 2015 ! © 2015 JONATHAN GREGORY LEDOUX All Rights Reserved ! DRIVERS OF GROUNDWATER FLOW AT A BACK BARRIER ISLAND – MARSH TRANSECT IN COASTAL GEORGIA by JONATHAN GREGORY LEDOUX Major Professor: Christof Meile Committee: Todd Rasmussen Clark Alexander Electronic Version Approved: Suzanne Barbour Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2015 ! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my committee members, Todd Rasmussen and Clark Alexander, for being flexible and always willing to help when needed and having the patience to see me through to the end. I would like to thank my primary advisor, Christof Meile, for always giving me the necessary support and time to succeed. I would not be here without his tough love and encouragement throughout my time in the lab. I would like to thank the technicians, especially Jacob Shalack and Caroline Reddy, who spent many hours in the heat and cold during the hour and a half boat ride one way and twenty minute walk through the marsh to collect my data. Thank you to Clark Alexander and those involved in installing the piezometers and collecting the vibracores. I would like to thank the GCE-LTER and the marine science department for funding my project efforts. I would like to thank my lab mates; Eric King, Maggie Esch, Kathy Loftis, David Miklesh, Tommy Dornhoffer, and Jurjen Rooze. A big thanks to my friends in the department pushing me and supporting me; Charles Schutte, Jonathan Taylor, Christian Edwards, Jared Mcknight, Michael Seidel, Annette Hynes, and Anna Tansik. To my family, especially my mother and father, for supporting me through all the good and bad times of graduate school, your unwavering support gave me the strength to achieve my goals. I have not traveled this journey alone, a huge thanks goes to my best friends and roommates, Mark Jones, Mellissa Roskosky, and Sara Hiers for being there with encouragement, wisdom, or a beer when I needed it. ! iv! TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ iv LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 1 Importance of the Marsh .............................................................................. 1 Groundwater at the Coast ............................................................................ 2 Threats to Current Conditions ...................................................................... 3 Purpose of Study .......................................................................................... 4 2 METHODS ....................................................................................................... 6 Study Site ..................................................................................................... 6 Hydrological Data ......................................................................................... 6 Data Treatment ............................................................................................ 7 Darcy’s Law and the Decomposition of Pressure Signals ............................ 8 Slug Test .................................................................................................... 10 Subsurface Pressure Waves ...................................................................... 11 Dominant Modes in the Signal ................................................................... 12 Matching Time Series with Signals of Known Tidal Frequencies ............... 12 Fast Fourier Transform ............................................................................... 13 v! Empirical Mode Decomposition .................................................................. 13 Empirical Orthogonal Function ................................................................... 14 Inundation Meter ........................................................................................ 14 Precipitation ................................................................................................ 16 3 RESULTS ...................................................................................................... 17 Hydrodynamic Results ............................................................................... 17 Reference Depth ........................................................................................ 17 Slug Tests................................................................................................... 18 Magnitude and Direction of Groundwater Flow .......................................... 18 Subsurface Pressure Waves ...................................................................... 19 Density Driven Flow ................................................................................... 19 Tidal Frequency Analysis ........................................................................... 20 Empirical Mode Decomposition .................................................................. 20 Empirical Orthogonal Functions ................................................................. 21 Inundation Meter ........................................................................................ 22 Precipitation Analysis ................................................................................. 22 4 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................ 24 Flow Patterns.............................................................................................. 24 Impact of Salinity Distribution ..................................................................... 25 Influence of Pressure Wave from Creek .................................................... 26 EMD and EOF ............................................................................................ 27 Tidally Driven Flow ..................................................................................... 28 Precipitation Across the Marsh ................................................................... 29 vi! Dominant Forcing ....................................................................................... 30 5 CONCLUSSION ............................................................................................ 35 FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ 37 TABLES .......................................................................................................................... 58 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 70 APPENDIX ..................................................................................................................... 82 vii! LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1: Piezometer Elevation Measurements ............................................................... 54 Table 2: Average Darcy Velocities ................................................................................. 55 Table 3: Calculations for Permeability ............................................................................ 56 Table 4: Average Pressure Gradient due to Density ...................................................... 58 Table 5: U Tide Constituents from well 8 Water Level ................................................... 57 Table 6: U Tide Constituents from well 8 Water Level Above Saturation ....................... 61 Table 7. Precipitation vs. Tidally Removed Signal ......................................................... 64 Table 8: Distance of Tidal Influence ............................................................................... 65 viii! LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: